Andrew has welcomed the announcement this week that the Government will be consulting on proposals for fair school funding.
These proposals look at introducing a new national funding formula from 2017/18 onwards and will ensure that every school and local authority area is fairly funded. This new funding formula will based according to pupil needs, no matter where they are in the country, rather than the current system; under which our area misses out.
Currently the ten best funded areas of England receive an average of £6,300 per pupil of schools block funding, compared to just £4,200 in the ten worst funded areas, with no objective basis for the difference.
Andrew, who is part of the f40 group which has called on the Government to introduce fairer school funding, says, “I welcome this announcement by the Secretary of State that proposals to address the funding imbalance and introduce fair funding for schools are now available for consultation. The current formula was Labour’s funding system and I was disappointed that Labour have previously attacked me for demanding fairer funding!
Our area has missed out for years, receiving significantly less per head of Council funding for pupils than nearby areas such as Hull and Doncaster. This isn’t right and I’m pleased that Ministers have recognised the need for reform and are consulting on the proposals to ensure that areas like ours get a fairer share of any available funding.
We had a fantastic response to our recent petition and this consultation is now available online for comment.”
You can access the consultation here: https://consult.education.gov.uk/
You can keep up to date with the campaign here: http://www.f40.org.uk/
Picture - Andrew presenting the f40 petition in Parliament.
